ABSTRACTCold-stored fruits of the loquat (Eriobotrya japonicaLindl.) plant suffer from strong lignification, which leads to a hard texture and a crude mouthfeel of the pulp. However, the signalling mechanisms of loquat fruits under cold storage remain unclear. In this study, the heterotrimeric G protein α subunit (Gα) gene (EjLGA1) from loquat was isolated, and in silicoanalysis was performed. The levels of EjLGA1expression in cold-stored loquat fruits with different pretreatments were also investigated. The largest open-reading frame of EjLGA1is 1173 bp, encoding a polypeptide of 390 amino acids. The nucleotide and amino acid sequences of the Gα subunit are highly conserved among loquat and 48 other seed plants, indicating that the loquat Gα subunit likely has similar functions in other plants. A reliable model of the loquat Gα subunit was constructed, which revealed the structure of the subunit. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) results showed that EjLGA1is highly expressed under cold storage, which suggests the significance of EjLGA1function in loquat fruits in response to cold stress. However, ethephon and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) pretreatments did not regulate EjLGA1expression. These results provide new insight into the signalling mechanism in cold-stored loquat fruits.